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ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



. . BY . . 

AN OXFORD M.A. 



THREEPENCE. 



IPortsmoutb : 

Holhrook (Sr^ Son, Lid,, " Portsmouth Twits ' 
Printing Works, Queen Street. 






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Abraham Lincoln. 



Charles Kingsley said : 

" Let us thank any man who will tell men, 
in whatever clumsy and rough fashion, that 
they are not things, and pieces of a map, but 
persons, with an everlasting duty, an ever- 
lasting right and wrong, an everlasting God 
in Whose presence they stand, and Who will 
judge them according to their works. True, 
that is not all that men need to learn. After 
they are taught, each apart, that he is a man, 
they must be taught how to be an united 
people, but the individual teaching must 
come first." 

And this was the way in which Abra- 
ham Lincoln from early life taught himself 
the priceless value of his body, mind, and 
spirit, and through this training and self- 
control in all three departments of his 
being made himself fit for his great and 
responsible work in life. As long as the 
world lasts it w^ill never be forgotten by 
mankind that he preserved the unity of 
the American Nation, and broke the 
fetters of slavery from off the coloured 
race ; and has left us an example of a 
victorious life in the eternal struggle 



Ul I 



77 



between the two principles of right and 
wrong. If ever in Hfe you condemn a 
person unjustly, and you find out your 
mistake, the thoroughly British way is to 
own up to it and try and put matters 
right. This is what pur greatest comic 
paper " Punch " did with regard to Abra- 
ham Lincoln ; read the words slowly that 
you may take them in : — 

"Beside this corpse that bears for winding sheet 
The stars aad stripes he lived to rear anew, 
Between the mourners at his head and feet, 
Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you ? 



*' Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, 
To lame my pencil, and confute my pen — 
To make me own this hind — of princes peer, 
This rail-splitter — a true born king of men." 

Ris €arlp £ire. 

Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809, 
in Hardin County, Kentucky, on February 
12th. His Father and Mother were both 
natives of Virginia. The Home in which 
he was born was both squalid and 
wietched — a one-roomed cabin without 
floor or window. Here he spent the 
first eight years of his life, amid poverty 
and privations, hardships and sufferings. 
The struggle for existence was very 
strenuous in that wilderness. His mother 
died when he was 10 years old, and it is 



most important to remember, to her ever- 
lasting honour, that she, amid all her 
struggles in these wild regions, taught her 
son to read his Bible. We shall see how 
this stood him in good stead in after life, 
and laid the foundation of his future 
greatness. His father married again, and 
Abraham Lincoln was devoted to her, 
calling her a " saintly mother," " an angel 
of a mother," who "first made him feel 
like a human being." Schools were very- 
rare, and the scholars were taught merely 
the rudiments of instruction. Abraham 
Lincoln wrote of this period : — " Of course 
when I came of age I did not know much, 
still, somehow, I could read, write, and 
cipher to the rule of three, but that was 
all. I have not been to school since. 
The little advance I now have upon this 
store of education I have picked up from 
time to time under the pressure of 
necessity," This is how he was educated, 
but Abraham Lincoln knew how to use 
the little knowledge he possessed to the 
best possible advantage. 

The list of his books is interesting— 
The Bible, "The Pilgrim's Progress," 
"^sop's Fables," a '' History of the United 
States," a " Life of Washington," and 
" Robinson Crusoe." He knew them all 
by heart. He walked twelve mile^ once 



to borrow a copy of an English Grammar. 
He \^as always using his mental powers, 
reading and writing, while others slept. 
He thought out subjects for himself, and 
consequently had made up his mind upon 
them. Paper being very scarce, he would 
by the aid of the firelight during the 
evening, write and cipher upon the back 
of a wooden shovel, and then shave it 
off to make room for more. He wou]d 
take a lump of chalk and make his notes 
on the broader wall of the cabin. An old 
farmer recalls him sitting barefoot on a 
wood pile reading a book. This being 
such an extraordinary proceeding for a 
farm hand, he asked him what he was 
reading. 

" Tm not reading," repHed Lincoln, 
"I'm studying." 

*' Studying what ? " asked the farmer. 

" Law, Sir," was the dignified reply. 

" Great God Almighty ! " exclaimed 
the farmer. It was too great a shock for 
him. 

Abraham Lincoln was of great stature, 
six feet four inches, and of shght but 
muscular build. He was very strong, one 
of the most powerful men America ever 
had. He could lift a weight of 1.200 
pounds. He was great in athletics. 



especially in wrestling, and there was 
only one man w^ho could even dispute a 
fall with him. He never lost his temper. 

It was in 1828 that he first saw some- 
thing of the great world outside the nar- 
row boundaries of his home, when he was 
nineteen years old. For a short time a 
neighbour employed him to accompany 
his son down to the river to New Orleans 
in a flat-boat of produce. This he carried 
out with great success. On his return 
home, his father, w^ho was always of 
rather a roving disposition, tired of life in 
Indiana, took his family and goods in a 
single wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, 
a fourteen days' journey through the 
wilderness, and found himself once more 
in Illinois. Abraham Lincoln, on arriving, 
ploughed the fifteen-acre lot, and cut 
down from the walnut trees of the forest 
enough rails to fence off the Httle property . 
This ended his home life. 

Soon he came of age, and having no 
means, and no friends, he had to earn his 
own living. During this period of his 
early life he passed through many experi- 
ences, as a farm-labourer, a clerk in a 
village store, working a mill, another visit 
to New Orleans on a flat-boat of his own 
invention, and lastly as a pilot. So he 
made his living until the year 1832, when 



an event occurred, when he was 23 years 
of age^ which brought him into pubHc 
notice. Black Hawk, the celebrated 
Indian Chief, made an alliance with the 
chiefs of several other tribes, and made 
war upon those who were in possession 
of the happy hunting grounds of his 
ancestors. This chief was in his sixty- 
seventh year when he crossed the Missis- 
sippi to regain the Rock River Valley, the 
scenes of his early trials and triumphs. 
He said he had come to plant corn, to w^in 
a few victories, and then to sit down in 
his old age to see the corn grow as he had 
seen it in his youth, 

Abraham Lincoln served as captain of 
volunteers during this war. One day 
during this compaign, a solitary, weary, 
hungry Indian found his way into Lincoln's 
camp. He was taken for a spy, and the 
inconsiderate undisciplined men were in 
favour of shooting him without ceremony. 
In the nick of time Lincoln came to the 
rescue, and with a face full of fire and 
determination, he said to the angry mob : 
" This must not be done. He must not 
be killed nor shot by us." And the pas- 
sion of the men was subdued. Though 
in arms against Black Hawk's lawless 
invasion, Abraham Lincoln proved a 
friend in need to the individual Indian. 



Though there was no battle during these 
short hostilities, he was acknowledged as 
a rising local leader. His popularity was 
unbounded, and the people all round the 
district of his home were unanimously in 
his favour. 



Bis £ire as a £au)pen 

When the war was over, Abraham 
Lincoln returned to New Salem, his home 
in Illinois, and commenced the study of 
the law, after having tried his hand as 
store clerk, surveyor, and postmaster. 
He was eminently adapted for it through 
having a strong logical mind. He was as 
earnest in his studies as he was in other 
labours. 

His Honour Judge Parry says :— 

" Rough and ready as the formalities of 
justice might be, it was very necessary in the 
judge's ow^n interest to make it clear that 
w^hat he was administering was really law. 
Two much learning w^as apt to puzzle a 
backwoodsman jury. There is a story of a 
foreman who returned to a learned judge to 
say his jury could not agree on their verdict, 
and on being asked w^hat the trouble w^as, 
replied: 'Judge, this 'ere is the difficulty. 
The jury want to know if that thar what you 
told us was r'al'y the law or on'y jist your 
notion.' 



" Even ^w^hen Lincoln joined the Illinois 
Bar the courts were very primitive. The 
judge sat on a rais ;d platform with a pine or 
white wood board on which to write his 
notes. There was a small table on one side 
for the clerk, and a larger one, sometimes 
covered with green baize, for the lawyers, 
who sat around and rested their feet on it. 
There were few law books. The Revised 
Statutes, the Illinois Form Book, and a few 
text books might be found in most towns, 
but there were no extensive lav/ libraries 
any w^here. From one Court-house to another 
the judge drove in a gig or buggy, the Bar 
following for the most part on horseback, 
»with a clean shirt and one or two elementary 
law books in their saddlebags. Some too 
poor to ride tramped the circuit on foot, but 
as there were many horse thieves to defend, 
and a horse was a well-recognised fee, it was 
not long before a young man of ability was 
mounted. 

" Such was the circuit when Lincoln first 
joined it. He was then 27 years of age, ' six 
feet four inchf s in height, awkward, un- 
gainly, and app irently shy. He was dressed 
in ill-fitting home-SDun clothes, the trousers 
a little too short and the coat a trifle too 
large. He had the appearance of a rustic on 
his first visit to the circus.' He kept his 
bankbook and the bulk of his letters in his 
hat, a silk plug, and a memo would be jotted 
down on paper and stuck in the lining of his 
hat. No wonder Stanton, the courtly advo- 
cate of Chicago, sneered contemptuously at 
the 'long-armed creature from Illinois,* 
though he learned in the end to admire and 
respect him. 

" But the public recognised his capacity 



at once. In spite of physical and social 
drawbacks, Lincoln as an advocate was an 
immediate success. He was soon on one 
side or the other in every important case, 
and was pointed out to strangers by proud 
citizens of Springfield as 'Abe Lincoln, the 
first lawyer of Illinois ! ' He was a great 
favourite, not only w^ith the public, but with 
his fellow-lawyers on circuit. Although he 
never drank intoxicating liquor, and did not 
smoke or chew tobacco, he was fond of a 
horse-race or a cock-fight, and w^hen address- 
ing his fellow-countrymen drew his illustra- 
tions from these pursuits, as when he 
crushed a swaggering opponent who evaded 
his argument by saying that he reminded 
him of 'Bap McNabb's rooster, who was 
splendidly groomed and trained for the 
fight, but w^hen he was thrown into the ring, 
turned tail and fled, and Bap yelled after 
him : Yes, you little cuss, you're great on 

dress parade, but not w^orth a in a 

fight !-' 

" But the great qualities that brought him 
success as an advocate were his industry, 
honesty, and independence. Writing to a 
law student who had asked him the best 
method of studying law, he says : 'The 
mode is very simple, though laborious and 
tedious. It is only to get books and read 
and study them carefully. Work, work, 
work is the main thing.' He himself used 
to read aloud when studying, for then, he 
said, 'Two senses catch ths idea ; first, I see 
what I read ; second, I hear it, and therefore 
I can remember it better.' ' Billy ' Herndon, 
his law partner, draws a quaint picture of 
him at a circuit inn. 'We usually at the 
little country inns occupied the same bed. 



10 

In most cases the beds were too short for 
him, and his feet would hang over the foot- 
board, thus exposing a limited expanse of 
shin bone. Placing a candle on a chair at 
the head of the bed he would read and study 
for hours/ 

" His powers of homely humorous illus- 
trations often set the courts in a roar. When 
Lincoln's eye twinkled and he drawled out 
'That reminds me,' a chuckle of approbation 
ran through the Court-house as when a 
favourite comedian steps on the stage. It 
is impossible to reproduce these stories 
effectively in print, but as good an instance 
as any is the following yarn by w^hich he 
illustrated his client's point of view in an 
assault case. 

" It reminds me," he said, " of the man 
who was attacked by a furious dog, which 
he killed with a pitchfork." 

" What made you kill my dog ? " de- 
manded the farmer. 

" What made him try to bite me ? " re- 
torted the offender. 

" But w^hy didn't you go at him wth the 
other end of your pitchfork ? " persisted the 
farmer. 

" Well, why didn't he come at me with 
his other end ? " 

" Again, speaking to a jury on the pre- 
ponderance of evidence, and trying to 
explain to them what a lawyer means by the 
phrase, 'weight of evidence,' he laid down 
the legal principle in these words : ' If you 
w^ere going to bet on this case, on which side 
would you be willing to risk a ' fippenny ' ? 
That side on which you would be willing to 



\. 



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11 

bet a ' fippenny ' is the side on which rests 
the preponderance of evidence in your 
minds. It is possible that you may not be 
right, but that is not the question. The 
question is as to where the preponderance 
of evidence lies, and you can judge exactly 
where it lies in your minds by deciding as 
to which side you would be willing to bet 
on.' A man who could talk horse sense after 
that fashion in a law court would be listened 
to "in attentive sympathy by any twelve 
English-speaking men gathered together in 
the ripht box." 

Little by little he rose to prominence 
at the Bar, and became the most effective 
public speaker in the West, As there 
were no popular entertainments in those 
days, the people found their chief amuse- 
ment in frequenting the courts and public 
and poHtical assemblies. He who enter- 
tained and amused them most was the 
hero of the hour. This honour fell to 
Abraham Lincoln. 



Ris £ire as President* 

Abraham Lincoln was now twenty-six 
years of age, and a member of the popular 
branch of the Illinois Legislature. In 
course of time he became engaged to Miss 
Mary Todd, and was married privately 
at Springfield, Illinois, on the 4th Nov- 
ember, 1842. There were four children 
of this marriage, but the only one who 



12 

survived was their son Robert, who be- 
came Secretary of War for the United 
States. When Abraham Lincoln was 
elected President on the 18th May, 1860, 
the citizens of Springfield turned out to a 
man to congratulate their esteemed fellow- 
townsman. Lincoln, amid all the con- 
gratulations and hand-shaking, good- 
humouredly said : " Well, gentlemen, 
there's a little woman down at our house 
who would like to hear this ; I'll go down 
and tell her." The little woman was Mrs. 
Lincoln, whose ambition was to become 
the wife of a President of the United 
States. 

Abraham Lincoln was looked upon as 
the most fitting leader of the Nation in 
the terrible struggle for life which was 
before them. This struggle arose out o£ 
the tremendous question of slavery. 

In a thanksgiving sermon. The Rev. 
J. Adams of Philadelphia stated that, 
having an appointment to meet the Presi- 
dent at five o'clock in the morning, he 
went at a quarter of an hour before that 
time. While waiting for the hour, he 
heard a voice in the next room, as if in 
grave conversation, and asked the servant : 
" Who is talking in the next room ? '* 
*'It is the President, sir." " Is anybody 
with him ? " " No, sir, he is reading the 



13 

Bible." " Is that his habit so early in the 
morning ? " " Yes, sir ; he spends every 
morning, from four o'clock to five, in 
reading the Scriptures and praying." 

President Lincoln, though a giant in 
stature, was of spare but muscular build, 
very strong and a wonderful athlete. His 
features were striking, his complexion 
dark, with a broad high forehead, pro- 
minent cheekbones, grey deep-set eyes, 
and bushy black hair turning to grey. 
He had the heart of a woman, saying on 
one occasion : "I have not wilHngly 
planted a thorn in any man's bosom." 
His patience was inexhaustible, his tem- 
per was most cheerful and sunny (though 
at times he had fits of deep depression), 
he was very sociable and sympathetic, 
and loved a good story and a hearty 
laugh. His humour often saved a situa- 
tion, and bore him up under his heavy 
burdens of State. 

Negro slavery had been firmly estab- 
lished in the Southern States from an 
early period of their history. Cotton 
culture by negro labour was the leading 
industry of the South, and the importation 
of slaves was greatly increased. The 
question was a great political one, and 
the Southern States struggled for its main- 
tenance and extension. The Northern 



14 

States rose against it, and the Southern 
States threatened disunion if their de- 
mands were not met. Events brought 
about the formation of the RepubHcan 
party for the purpose of preventing by- 
constitutional methods the further exten- 
sion of slavery. Abraham Lincoln from 
the beginning was one of the most active 
and efficient leaders and speakers of the 
new party. His arguments were power- 
ful, and carried conviction everywhere. 
On the trip on the flat boat to New 
Orleans he had formed his opinion of 
slavery at the sight of negroes chained 
and scourged, and it was then and there 
that the iron entered into his soul ! Its 
terrible effects of injustice and cruelty 
were burnt into his memory through life. 
So we find him saying : — 

"The real issue in this country is the 
eternal struggle between these two principles 
— right and wrong — throughout the world. 
They are the two principles that have stood 
face to face from the beginning of time, and 
will ever continue to struggle. The one is 
the common right of humanity, and the other 
the divine right of kings. It is the same 
principle in whatever shape it develops 
itself. It is the same spirit that says : ' You 
work and toil and earn bread and 111 eat it.' " 

It was during this period that '' Uncle 
Tom's Cabin " was pubHshed, which ex- 
posed the frightful evils of the slave 



15 

system ; and the execution of John Brown 
for trying to incite the slaves to fight for 
their freedom produced that well-known 
song : — 

"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the 
grave, 

But his soul goes marching on." 

No sooner was Abraham Lincoln 
elected President than the Southern States 
revolted. Seven of them seceded, and 
seized upon the f orts^ arsenals, navy yards, 
and other public property of the United 
States within their boundaries, and were 
making every preparation for war. Lin- 
coln was not only President, but Com- 
mander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy 
of the United States, and it took him a 
long time, as a man of peace, to learn to 
be a War Minister. His first proclama- 
tion was a call for only 75,000 troops to 
serve for three months. How little the 
Commander-in-Chief and his staff thought 
to what gigantic proportions the war 
would grow. It lasted four years, and 
2,000,000 were enlisted on the side of the 
government, and the cost of the war was 
enormous. But through all those four 
terrible years the President bore himself 
nobly, relying upon God in making his 
just decisions, kind and considerate to all 
who offered him advice, but deciding 



16 

every great question for himself, he was 
enabled to sustain the name, which for 
many years he had been known by, 
".Honest Abe Lincoln." 

To understand the American Civil 
War we must remember that there were 
two elements of American life in conflict 
with each other. One was the spirit of 
the North for freedom, the other was the 
spirit of the South for Slavery. When 
Abraham Lincoln was about to sign the 
Emancipation Proclamation, one of his 
friends, Richard Yates, of Illinois, wrote : 
"Dear Abraham Lincoln, pause, the people 
are not ready for it ! " What was his reply 
by telegraph ? (and a nobler telegram 
was never sent along the wires) " Dear 
Dick, stand still and see the salvation of 
God ! " The proclamation was signed, and 
there were no longer stripes for the 
black men and stars for the white. It was 
on the first of January, 1863, the great 
Emancipation Proclamation was issued to 
America and the World, by which mil- 
lions of the President's fellow- creatures 
were rescued from the bondage of Slavery, 
and raised Abraham Lincoln to a fore- 
most place in history as a benefactor of 
his race. Picture to yourself the thrill in 
his heart, and the smile of joy on his 
face, while he was signing the immortal 



17 

document. Then look at a picture of this 
great deHverance from slavery during 
this great war between the Northern 
and Southern States. The President, 
Abraham Lincoln, sent a negro chaplain 
with a proclamation of freedom, signed 
by himself, to a great concourse of poor 
slaves. When the messenger arrived 
and saw the gathering of his own people, 
slaves with all the spirit crushed out of 
them, their hearts nearly broken, and 
many a body bearing about with it the 
scars of their cruel masters, we can 
imagine his feelings. How I should have 
liked to have been that messenger ! When 
he mounted the improvised platform and 
looked down upon that sea of faces, in 
which was written hope mingled with 
hopelessness, it is said that he forgot his 
speech, and with tears near to his eyes 
and filling his heart, he cried : " Fathers 
and mothers, I hold in my hand a pro- 
clamation signed by the President of the 
United States. From this moment you 
are free men and women. Never again 
shall your children be torn from your 
hearts and sent away to a living death.'* 
Every parent present sprang to his feet, 
and with intense feehng shouted : " Glory 
be to God." 

Again the messenger Hfted his voice : 



18 

*' Husbands, never again shall your wife 
or daughter be dragged from you into 
worse than death." And husbands and 
wives fell upon each other's necks, and. 
weeping great tears of joy. shouted : 
•'Glory be to God." ''Young men and 
women, never again shall you be sold into 
slavery : from this moment you are free. 
Your chains are broken, the slave-driver's 
^vhip must be put away." Then all the 
rest of the men. women, bovs. and oirls 
sprang to their feet and cried : '• Glory be 
to God." One can picture the scene of 
intense emotion : men and women not 
knowing whether to laugh or cry, to pray 
or dance : the pressing forward to look at 
the proclamation, to kiss the signature 
which meant so much to them : no longer 
slaves, but free. Indeed, there was only 
one way to express their feelings, it was 
'- Glory be to God." It was a moment 
never to be forgotten in that messenger's 
life, and in the lives of those who heard 
the good news. 

This proclamation sounded like a bugle 
call to the nation, and rallied the patriot- 
ism of the country to fresh sacrifices and 
deeds of glory. Moreover, it brought 
great moral and material support to the 
cause of the Government, for within two 
years 120.000 coloured troops were en- 



19 

listed in the military service, and, following 
the national flag, supported by all the 
loyalty of the North, and led by the 
choicest spirits. One mother said, when 
her son was offered the command of the 
first coloured regiment : " If he accepts it 
I shall be as proud as if I had heard that 
he was shot," He was shot leading a 
gallant charge of his regiment. The Con- 
federates replied to a request of his 
friends for his body, that they "had 
buried him under a layer of his niggers ' ' ; 
but that mother has lived to enjoy thirty- 
six years of his glory, and Boston 
has erected its noblest monument to his 
memory, 

President Lincoln, after frequently 
changing his generals, discovered General 
Grant as the master of the situation, and 
supported him with all his power. The 
plan of General Grant was very simple ; 
it was to use the superior strength of the 
North, in mone}^, men, and position to 
crush the enemy. When the full strength 
of the North was ready for use and made 
use of, victory was secured. General 
Grant had plenty of enemies, who urged 
the President to get rid of him, to which 
Abraham Lincoln replied : — " I can't 
spare that man, he fights ! " Never was the 
President's deep sympathy more called 



20 

forth than for the bereaved and suffering 
relatives of those who had been killed 
and wounded in action. He wrote the 
following letter to a mother who had 
given all her sons to her country : — 

"I have been shown/' he says, "in the 
files of the War Department a statement 
that you are the mother of five sons who 
have died gloriously on the field of battle. 
I feel how weak and fruitless must be any 
A^^ords of mine which should attempt to be- 
guile you from your grief for a loss so 
overwhelming, but I cannot refrain from 
tendering to you the consolation ^\rhich may 
be found in the thanks of the Republic they 
died to save. I pray that our Heavenly 
Father mav assuage the anguish of your be- 
reavement, and leave you only the cherished 
memory of the loved and the lost, and the 
solemn pride which must be yours to have 
laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of 
freedom/' 

Dr. Fort Newton says : — 

" Often his words moved with the very 
rhythm and cadence of the Bible music — 
for the Bible ^\^as his constant compaoion in 
those difficult years — and it is thus that they 
still walk up and down in tne hearts of men. 
No man of State in his land ever made so 
profound a religious impression and appeal 
as Lincoln did in his last years. Amidst the 
"^vild hell of war he pleaded for mercy and 
the love that forgives, and the very soul of 
the man shone in his face which none who 
saw it can forget. 

From the beginning of the war the 



21 

Navy of the North was well handled, and 
many precedents were created which 
have been of great service to us in this 
great European war. But the Victory 
had to be won on the field. The problem 
of the North was our own. 

Abraham Lincoln — world patriot, in 
the midst of the strife that threatened to 
break the unity of the American nation, 
w^as not so blind that he eould not see 
beyond the immediate task in hand. He 
saw that the Union, that the armies of the 
North were fighting a world-conflict. He 
perceived the deep principles underlying 
the immediate struggle, and, quite justly, 
he turned to England, the cradle of 
liberty, asking not for the support of her 
armies, but for the more subtle and more 
powerful support — her sympathy and 
moral backing. 

The decisive battle of Gettysburg 
turned the tide of this war, and it was at 
the dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery 
there that Abraham Lincoln said these 
imperishable words : — 

" "We cannot dedicate — we cannot conse- 
crate — we cannot hallow this ground. The 
brave men, living and dead, who struggled 
here have eonsecrated it far above our poor 
power to add or detract. The world will 
little note, nor long remember, w^hat we say 
here — but it can never forget what they did 



22 

here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be 
dedicated here to the unfinished work which 
they who fought here have thus far so nobly- 
advanced. It is rather for us to be here 
dedicated to the great task remaining before 
us — that from these honoured dead we take 
increased devotion to that cause for which 
they gave the last full measure of devotion 
— that we here highly resolve that these 
dead shall not have died in vain — that this 
nation under God shall have a new birth 
of freedom — and that government of the 
people, by the people, and for the people 
shall not perish from the earth." 

During an interview with a friend, 
after this speech, Abraham Lincoln said : 
' ' When I went to Gettysburg and looked 
upon the graves of our dead heroes who 
had fallen in defence of their country, I 
then and there consecrated myself to 
Christ." 

The following is one of those touching 
incidents that occur in wars : — 

*'On Christmas Eve, 1864, a regiment of 
the North and a regiment of the South were 
encamped, on either side of the Rappahan- 
nock river, where the stream, though deep, 
was narrow, every sound between the rival^ 
camps was heard, the strains of the military 
bands, as they played opposing national airs, 
inflamed the hostility of those brothers in 
deadly strife. As the Christmas evening 
wore on still and solemn, suddenly the band 
of the Southern regiment commenced the 
significant plaintive strain of ' Home, Sweet 
Home.' At first there was dead silence. 



23 

then the Northern band took up the strain, 
and the two bands softly played it together 
in the quiet evening air. Every angry word 
was silenced, every hea t was hushed, sweet 
memories of home came flooding in, and 
nothing but the river kept those men from 
throwing themselves into each other's arms." 

For four years was this terrible civil 
war waged. But it won for America and 
the World the priceless gift of freedom. 
Abraham Lincoln's answer to the Pacifists 
was " That he did not believe that a man 
could contract such a strong taste for 
emetics during a temporary illness as to 
insist on living on them for the rest of his 
Hfe." The effect of conscription was to 
revive voluntary enlistment. 

At the close of the Civil war, immedi- 
ately after the fall of Richmond, which 
was the citadel of the Southern Gt>n- 
federacy, the leaders and generals of both 
parties met together in a small farmhouse 
to discuss the terms of peace. The Con- 
federate leaders spread out their maps on 
the table, and then proceeded to state 
what they were willing to surrender — a 
fortress here, cities there, and a province 
yonder - The Federal leaders listened in 
silence, and, when all those offers were 
concluded, they made one simple, crush- 
ing reply: "The Government of the 
North must have all." 



24 

At the end of the War, President and 
Mrs. Lincoln (General Grant was unable 
to be present through pressing duties) 
drove to the theatre in New York to 
receive the expressions of joy and grati- 
tude of the people. In spite of warnings 
of assassination, which his honest nature 
refused to believe, the hand of an actor, 
John Wilkes Booth, born in Baltimore, in 
the Slave State of Maryland, was laid 
upon him, and the President was shot 
through the head by the pistol of the 
assassin. Abraham Lincoln lived for a 
few hours, but never regained conscious- 
ness. The murderer exclaimed to the 
crowded audience : " So it is always with 
tyrants." "The South is avenged." He 
sprang on to the stage, and rushed to the 
exit, mounting a horse which was ready 
for him, and so escaped. His sprained 
ankle prevented his escape Southward, 
and furnished a clue which ended in his 
discovery and death. 

Bishop Phillips Brooks, in his touch- 
ing sermon at Philadelphia, while the 
body of the President was lying in the 
City, said : "God brought him up, as He 
brought David up from the Sheep folds to 
feed Jacob, His People, and Israel, His 
inheritance. He came up in earnestness 
and faith, and he goes back in triumph." 



25 

The greatest statesmen have been men 
of prayer. In our sister nation across the 
sea we have had a striking example in 
Abraham Lincoln, who never spoke truer 
words during the w^hole of his stormy- 
political life than when he said : "I have 
been driven many times to my knees by 
the overwhelming conviction that I had 
nowhere else to go ; for my own wisdom, 
and that of all about me, seems insuffi^ 
cient for the day." ^ 

He was a man of God, plain, homely, 
kindly, who knew that humanity is 
deeply wounded somewhere, and tried to 
heal it — and of his fame there will be no 
end." 

America having thrown in its lot with 
Great Britain, it is most important to hear 
what the Leader of the United States has 
to say : — 

President Wilson in his memorable 
address to Congress closed with these 
very remarkable words : — 

" It is a distressing and oppressive duty, 
gentlemen of the Congress, which I have 
performed in thus addressing you. There 
are, it may be, many months of fiery trial 
and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful 
thing to lead this great peaceful people into 



26 

war — into the most terrible and disastrous 
of all wars, civilisation itself seeming to be 
in the balance. 

But the right is more precious than 
peace, and we shall fight for the things which 
w^e have always carried nearest our hearts — 
for democracy, for the right of those^ who 
submit to authority to have a voice in their 
ow^n government, for the rights and liberties 
of small nations, for a universal dominion of 
right by such a concert of free peoples as 
shall bring peace and safety to all nations 
and make the world itself at last free. 

To such a task we can dedicate our lives 
and our fortunes, everything that we are and 
everything that we have, with the pride of 
those who know that the day has come w^hen 
America is privileged to spend her blood and 
her might for the principles that gave her 
birth and happiness and the peace which she 
has treasured. God helping her, she can do 
no other." 

It is most important that Great Britain 
and America should understand each 
other now, because the future safety of 
the world lies in the unity of these two 
great English-speaking peoples. 

In a speech at Plymouth in August, 
1917, by the American Ambassador to 
England (Dr. Page), His Excellency 
said : — 

"In normal times many thousands of 

Americans do pay visits to your kingdom. 

They make pilgrimages. They come for 

c pleasure and instruction. As soon as the 



27 

^-ar ends they will come again in still greater 
numbers. But in spite of visits, either way 
or both ways, of large numbers of individuals, 
each people has a vast deal of ignorance 
about the other. This very day I saw a 
statuette of Benjamin Franklin labelled 
George Washington. (Laughter). It is a 
priceless treasure that I shall take away from 
Plymouth. (Renewed laughter)." 

We must learn from each other, and 
discard our exclusiveness. We must 
throw open wide the door, and receive 
ihe Americans as brothers, not cousins, 
for only as brothers can we really stand 
together. If only America and Britain 
always stood together, they could guaran- 
tee the peace of the world. 

And so the prophetic words in one of 
John Bright's speeches which he made 
during the American War will become 
true : — 

"It may be only a vision, but I will cherish 
it. I see one vast confederation stretching 
from the frozen North to the glowing South, 
and from the stormy billows of the Atlantic, 
westward to the calmer waters of the Pacific 
main, I see one people, and one faith, and 
one language," 



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